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Welcome to Venison's Weekly Blog! Here you will find advice, show reviews, thoughts and short articles by the Venison Team. We welcome your input comments and thoughts in return! 
​Thanks for reading Venison Magazine!

Quarterly

Bestiario/Menagerie

1/16/2017

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San Francisco-based curator A.R. Vazquez-Concepcion untangles threads of history, knowledge production, and colonialism in Bestiario/Menagerie, a vibrant, 10-person group exhibition on view at Adobe Books Back Gallery through January 28.

Bestiario or “bestiary”, roughly translated, describes a compendium of animals – imaginary and real – that was bound in book or illuminated manuscript form. Dating to second century Greece, bestiaries reflected a desire to understand the natural and spiritual worlds through collecting, categorization, and comparison.

Review by Roula Seikaly

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Abdiel Segarra Rios // No hay colonia como la mia (There is no colony like mine) Me equivoque pero lo hice con amor (I made a mistake but I did it with love) // 2016
​Centuries on, cabinets of curiosities were amassed as Enlightenment thinking and imperialist expansion brought western Europeans into contact with worldwide civilizations. Through dedicated study of physical artifacts, it was believed, a civilization’s value could be assessed. The sinister footnote to that ambitious effort is, of course, that colonized societies were treated as foreign, as the other, and in need of “civilizing” through paternalistic intervention.
The artifacts that were assembled in personal and later, public curio collections, were regarded as representations of the unfamiliar, and knowledge derived from observation was passed generationally as authoritative. In Bestiario/Menagerie, the objects and the artistic practices that produce them reject containment and the purported “authority” of knowledge through provocative juxtaposition.

Vazquez-Concepcion makes the most of Adobe Books’ intimate gallery, spacing each object to hold its own and, when considered relationally, deliver a deeper and decidedly more troubling understanding when viewed together. ​​​​
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Lionel Cruet // Scatter Sky // 2013/17
Marcela Pardo Ariza’s “Dissident” (2016), in which a humorously unruly pencil line interrupts the banal familiarity of a Post-It note, is both funnier and more frightening next to Fernando Pintado’s “Non Nobis Domine Non Nobis” (Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us) (2016). Its title excerpted from a short Latin hymn that expresses humility and thanks for spiritual blessings, this four-panel charcoal and paint piece portrays crusading Knights Templar who waged multiple wars to reclaim Jerusalem from Muslim invaders. In this pairing, notions of rebellion expand and align an innocuous graphite mark and state-sanctioned terrorists bent on delivering apocalyptic violence in the name of Christianity.
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Fernando Pintado // Non Nobis Domine Non Nobis // 2016
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Marcela Pardo Ariza // Dissident // 2016
Stretching diagonally across the gallery, Santiago Insignares’ colorful biomorphic sculptures “Restriction”, “Implication”, and “Posthumous” (2016) address traumatic experiences and how memory enforces such events as mile markers in our lives. Without knowing that the meat of Insignares’ inspiration includes systematic massacre, displays of tortured bodies, and domestic violence, these sculptures might earn little more than a passing glance. Insignares interrogates authority’s unchecked abuses, and how knowledge is obscured to mask the gravest offenses.
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Mya Pagan_ // Monstrixt // 2017
Maria Guzman-Capron’s “El Tigre y Yo” (The Tiger and I) (2017), and Mya Pagan’s “Monstrix” (2017) recall the first bestiaries and later cabinets of curiosities as embodied versions of fantastical hybrid beasts, but with a subversive twist. Working with discounted fabrics, Guzman-Capron fashions a half-tiger, half-human sculpture that lounges atop a low plinth as though enjoying celebrity status. Mya Pagan offers a playful Pan-like creature revealed by a drawn curtain – again half human and half animal – covered in luxurious fur and crowned with flowers and horns. Engaging objects both, especially because their inclusion within this exhibitionary context points to the wholescale degradation colonized people – women in particular – faced as they were enslaved, displayed like circus attractions for lurid consumer satisfaction, and civilized (read: stripped of their individuality and autonomy) for their own good.
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Maria Guzman // Capron_El Tigre y Yo // 2017
The motley assemblage that is Bestiario/Menagerie demonstrates both the best and worst of human inclinations: curiosity is an evolutionary gift. Building knowledge through collecting, comparing, and analyzing has helped the human species amass a compendium more comprehensive than any bestiary or curio cabinet could contain. When knowledge, or presumed knowledge, is used to subjugate others, we lose our humanity. Through these objects and the juxtapositions they activate, the knots of history, knowledge production, and the ever-present danger of using it to exploit others begin to unravel.
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Paula Morales // Arqueologia Digital // 2017
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Maria Guzman-Capron // Black Sandals // 2015
Adobe Books
​Back Gallery


3130 24th Street
San Francisco CA 94110
​

Exhibition dates | Jan 7th - 28th 2017

Closing Reception | Jan 28th 6 - 9pm
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Holiday Spotlight: Amber Imrie-Situnayake & Adriana Villagran

12/12/2015

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In light of the Holiday Season, a time for friends and family to come together, we thought it was important for our readers to get to know who we are. Over the next few weeks, we'll be introducing to you the creators and contributors of Venison Magazine: the art publication run by artists for artists.

​Today, I'd like to introduce to you our Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Amber Imrie-Situnayake
​&
Lead Editor and Journalist, Adriana Villagran.

www.amberimrie.com, @amberimrie
​www.adrianavillagran.com, @adrimakesart


Amber Imrie-Situnayake

Amber grew up in the Ozark Mountains and it has undeniably had a significant influence on her work. She uses “historically craft based and domestically ripe materials,” such as wool, as mentioned in her artist statement, “to bring comfort to things that are in all honesty, not as pleasant as they initially seem.” Here, we touch basis with the artist and founder on her motivation for starting Venison Magazine.
​
What inspired you to launch Venison Magazine?
So this answer comes in a few parts. This is where I was coming from mentally: As a beginning artist, I had just left undergrad and I was finding it incredibly hard to "get out there and meet people." I was part of an art collective that I founded while still in school, but I was finding it difficult to meet new artists and bring more people on board. I just felt awkward and insincere in all my actions. I was intimidated by art openings. I grew up really poor and uncultured, so the gallery scene was about as far removed from a BBQ in Arkansas as you could get. Simply, I felt out of my element.
But then the Ah ha! moment: 
I was in the UK at a gallery space in Birmingham with my in-laws when I went into the gift shop area to find a magazine I could read on the plane home and I couldn't find anything that I was willing to buy. Most of the magazines were 70-90% advertising, and most of the work was outdated and safe. I couldn't find anything that was showing the kind of work that was even similar to the space I was standing in. So I thought, let’s start a magazine!
There are definitely some wonderful online magazines that are doing very similar things as Venison now, which is fantastic! I never started the company with dollar signs in my eyes, but I started it to build community and give a platform for emerging and pre-emerging artists who were making unusual, compelling, or risky work.
​"I never started the company with dollar signs in my eyes, but I started it to build community.."
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Amber in a piece from her Hum installation, 2015.
And then I thought, how does an artist dedicate themselves to their own work and the works of others? 
​
​What kind of affect does writing about art have on your own creative processes?

This is such a great question, because it has a huge impact on my own work. It connects me with larger dialog about art, themes, and movements. Writing about art has made my work more relatable to others and less (directly) personal. Since I work as a scout for the magazine. I look at A LOT of artist websites, so my own site has vastly improved and become more user friendly. It's also given me a whole new perspective on the jurying process which has made my own rejections easier to swallow. The writing and editing aspect has improved my own writing. If you told my high school english teacher that I was working as an editor--she would bark with laughter. After I dropped out of high school, I asked her for a letter of recommendation for a job at McDonalds, she said "I'll have to tell them that you are bad at writing." Her opinion of me was astoundingly low. 
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Amber Imrie-Situnayake working on Nature Suit in her Studio. Photo Credit: Dave McHale
As a self-promoter, I like having the magazine; it relaxes the situation and allows us to have a real connection. Some of the relationships I've developed have grown into shows of my own work, while others haven't, but I have good relationships with a lot of spaces which is most important. ​I've also gained great interpersonal skills. Gallery openings and meeting curators and directors has become fun. Instead of freezing up and having no idea what to say, I have a million questions and am able to show the genuine interest I’ve always had. Now people don't assume I'm just another artist out to promote myself. Instead, I can be a person of press who is interested in what the organization is doing. That way there isn't so much pressure to promote myself. I also find that if I introduce myself as both an editor and artist, it puts the curator or gallery owner at ease. You can sense them tense up when they think they are being hunted down by an artist interested in their space. 

As a fiber and installation artist, you create large scaled, interactive works. Your most recent project, “Nature Suit” falls within that realm but brings new light to installation art. What were your driving forces for this project?

The Nature Suit is about how nature is sold to us as an idolized holy experience we must prepare for through products and technology.
​
So, I grew up off-the-grid in Newton County Arkansas. We lived over an hour's drive from the closest town. I didn't go to school, we didn't have much money, and I spent most my time in the woods by myself. Bugs and bug bites were a normal everyday aspect of life. I have large scars on both my knees from skinning them, and countless "marks of adventure" across my body. I never thought that my life was in anyway "cool" but rather, I was made fun of for being tomboyish and dirty. Now, I live in the Bay Area, where it is trendy to go hiking and be outdoors. Here, Hipsters & Yippies take hikes in their 200 dollar boots and Northface pants holding their hiking poles. 
They walk along groomed trails that wind through groves not 30 yards from civilization. Marine county, one of the wealthiest places, is also leading in outdoor living. The products marketed to them: sweat wicking ultra-light weight jackets, hiking poles, 'Fresh' scent bug sprays,  1,000 dollars a night "rustic glamping trip."

​It's so ridiculous how idolized an "authentic" interaction with nature has become and how far from "authentic" these trips and products make us from the reality of actually being in nature. 
So, that is the Nature Suit----the next step to making a product substitute for the "authentic adventure." A way to look like you've had adventures in nature without the hassle of going outdoors. It also highlights the aspects of being in nature that people try to avoid through buying all these products. As if bug bites and scars are the cool factor in our outdoor living trend. ​​
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Nature Suit ad Campaign, 2015


Adriana Villagran

Adriana, currently based in San Francisco, CA, is a visual artist who creates images that are very inviting and dare I say, delicious? Don't mistake me though, her works are not to be taken lightly. As you read on, you'll see why.
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Sweet Tooth, Oil on panel, 2014
My initial question is often, why and do you enjoy it? When I asked Adriana this, she mentioned she loved being introduced to artists. Artists she may not have been able to meet if it weren't for the Venison connection--or community---being built. She stated, "The most exciting part is finding artists across the globe struggling with the same existential questions that I am. It's very comforting, and quite an inspiration to keep moving forward. "

As Lead editor, I can imagine you’ve reviewed a ton of art! What do you find most important when it comes to interacting with fellow artists?
I would say the mode of dialogue is most important. That is, how I am interacting with the artist: is it a digital or face-to-face conversation. The personal in-studio conversations are joyfully awkward and ultimately richer than a digital conversation.
That is of course to be expected. You tend to get more of a grasp of what the artist's work is about because you can see it and smell it and you can ask questions right on the spot. Most of the interactions I have through Venison are digital though. We live in digital world now, that is the reality.

What's great about these type of interactions is that the artist has the time to reflect and put their best foot forward. They can take a breath and not stress out about saying the right thing at the right moment. It gives them an opportunity to really reflect and see things through another artist's eyes. I think that is a good moment for them, a moment for growth. So ultimately the mode of conversation decides the kind of interaction I have with each artist.

​I think podcasts are going to be a thing in the near future which is a whole other beast. I'm excited to see how that turns out
"... It gives them an opportunity to really reflect and see things through another artist's eyes." 
Both your paintings and sculptures entail great detail to depict a heavy message revolving around how women are perceived. When did you realize this was a subject to cover in your art?
It's actually a very clear moment that I started focusing on this subject matter. It was in late 2013 that I started working in a not-so-nice part of San Francisco that I really started to feel the burden of being a women in an urban environment. Burden is really not the right word for it. It is a much more complicated feeling than a single word can describe. But at that moment in my life, which was (and is) smack in the middle of my young naive adulthood, burden is the best word to describe what I was feeling. Here I was 23 years old and I became aware that a lot of my identity as a women had been force-fed to me by an overwhelmingly male perspective. This realization started to permeate into my art because it seemed like it was the only thing I had going that was really worth investigating. Two years later and my work is barely scratching the surface on such complex perceptions  
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Sticky Bun, Oil on panel, 2015
of women. Recently I have begun to really delve into women's magazines as a source of inspiration as they are so brilliantly laid out to manipulate the reader. They are jewels of inspiration for my work, the question now is how do I manipulate the imagery to say something more meaningful and bite back a bit. That is the really difficult part.
 "...the question now is how do I manipulate the imagery to say something more meaningful and bite back a bit."
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Under the Rose, colored pencil and pan pastel on paper, 2015
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Shroud, colored pencil on paper, 2015
The goals of Venison Magazine are apparent: to build a foundation where artists can meet, discuss and expose themselves to one another. Stop by next week to read about more of the artists contributing to Venison!
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Founding A Magazine; How it's informed and forwarded my art practice.

4/12/2015

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Thought's and Reflections by Amber Imrie-Situnayake


One of the many things my art professors said to me at UC Berkeley was, "go to shows!" This was probably some of the best advice that was given to me, and one of the hardest to put into practice. 

I was one of the lucky, the few who was able to keep up a healthy studio practice after leaving the womb that is 'University'. This wasn't for lack of extreme forward planning. I had spent 5 years between high school and my graduate studies working "dead end jobs" before returning to education. 

So it's safe to say, that I knew what lied ahead for someone with a BA even from a good University. My magic 8 ball would say "outlook was bleak." I had to put into place a system that could help me avoid dropping the art practice I loved. In my junior year I started an art collective with my friends and we began to book group shows at gallery spaces and book shops throughout the city. This started my community and kept my spirits up.

My first year out I spent working as an after-school art teacher. During the week, I would spend from 6am-2pm in the studio before heading off to work. Then, I generally spent either Saturdays or Sundays lesson planning or making work in my studio (aka my living room). I essentially pretended I was still in school, making up deadlines for myself to keep the work flowing and getting shows at the few places I could.

It wasn't until a year and half after I left school that I started to go to shows. I started in the only manner I knew, to Saturday Stroll the First Friday galleries in Oakland. This was fun at first, but soon, I lost interest. I found the few galleries who showed compelling work and I was enjoying a good amount of what was being shown, but I needed more. While Saturday's calmer aspect let me talk to curators and owners, I was alone. I didn't have a stable exhibition buddy. And I'm not the artist to press my work on people. So I wasn't about to tell any of these curators that I was an artist and had them my card... and frankly I also knew my work wasn't strong enough yet. I needed to build my community and hope (aka work-my-ass-off so) the work followed suite. 

I needed to meet people but galleries and artists; the relationship is complicated. I feel like my professors were giving me powerful advice, "go to shows". But the advices was subtlety flawed.  The relationships between galleries and artists has changed. It wasn't too long ago that galleries and curators had portfolio days and now I'm told it's unprofessional to hand a gallery curator your card. But wait, it's a business card. Isn't that THE way you meet people professionally in any other career?

Well I've been told they prefer to see submissions online, but you and I know they are rarely seen for months or years if at all. A lot of galleries have bold texts on their websites saying NO ARTIST SUBMISSIONS. So tell me, what is the professional manner? Secondary introductions? Every curator is different and cold calling is no fun. Not for any party involved. It's not always fruitless, but 99% of the time you'll never hear back anyways.

So, nearly two years out of Uni, I decided to start Venison Magazine. Venison gave me a new way to talk and interact with the art community. To see, investigate, and talk with artist's about their own work. It gave me a way to approach people in a manner that wasn't awkward and self-serving. It allowed me to dig deeper and foster relationships. This started to push my art practice in exciting ways. Not only did my work improve but I started to learn from and become friends with artists I admired. This was emerging through an equal business endeavor, publicity. I had something to give and  in exchange I got answers to my questions.

I can't say I'm BFFs with every artist I interviewed, but I have made a many powerfully uplifting and encouraging friendships through this magazine. Some of which has lead to shows, meeting curators, collaborations and jumping barriers that I was hoping years of going to the saturday strolls might accomplish.  I have learned that going to shows can be great. But it's pretty fruitless unless you are plugging into the community involved. 

I don't really have any sound advice on how to get involved in that community, but from my experience, meeting other artist in my position has propelled me through years of painfully awkward gallery openings and countless wine-overs. It's also good to have someone to talk to while you loiter next to an artist or curator you're hoping to talk to!! You can view my work here. And follow my studio practice on Instagram: @amberimrie

Thanks Readers! 

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